The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - More pressure on Georgia or Alabama to win on Saturday? Plus Mailbag Questions!

Episode Date: September 25, 2024

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt examines the huge Top-5 matchup between #2 Georgia and #4 Alabama and discusses which program needs the win more and debates whether Kirby Smart or Kalen DeBoer has more pressure to get it done. Klatt then cracks open the mailbag to answer several questions beginning with whether UCF could be the beneficiary of Florida and Florida State’s poor season in the Sunshine State. He also discusses imbalanced scheduling in the new super-conference era and how he’d fix it. Klatt also answers questions ranging from how to learn more about the X’s and O’s of football to how to go about starting a career in sports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If Kirby Smart were to actually lose this game on Saturday, that's actually a giant issue because it goes from a Nick Saban problem that Kirby Smart had to an Alabama problem that he still has. College football has never been better. Interest has never been higher. Believe that we are at the dawn of the golden age of college football. It was an epic day of college football.

It was one of those days where you fall in love with the sport all over again. What's up everybody? Welcome into the program. I am Joel Clatt. This is the Joel Clat show. This show, as always, is presented by Hampton by Hilton. Thanks to the fine folks, Hampton by Hilton. Always love that. Lots to get into today. Midweek here. Getting towards the middle of the season, really quarter-pole of the season and some big matchups, obviously. Remember, we're going to have a preview episode coming out tomorrow on Thursday. We'll try to make some picks. Picks did not go well for your boy last week. I'm just saying, there's a reason that I've never bet a penny on any. game in my life, right? You know what I mean? But we'll continue to make some picks. That's coming up tomorrow. Remember wherever you're listening to the show, just rate and review us. That will always help. And then share it with a friend. That would mean a lot to me. And then if you're on YouTube, even if you're not on YouTube, just make sure to subscribe, just hit that like button and leave a comment below and we'll try to get down there to it. All right. Follow us on the social media's blah, blah, blah. Georgia Alabama this week. I've got mailbag this week. Some great questions. Since we're

going to get into scheduling. We're going to get into a lot of different things here on this edition of the Joel Clatt Show. But mainly, I wanted to talk about this Georgia Bama game because it's such a massive game, obviously, coming up on Saturday. I wanted to take it, because listen, we'll hit it in the preview tomorrow, and I'll talk about the on-field matchup and what I think of actually what's going to happen on the field, and we'll do that on Thursday or tomorrow. What I wanted to do today, though, was just kind of take a step back and a little bit of a 30,000 foot view because of the interest in this game just from where these programs are at in college football and where they're at in their own history. And I think it's a fascinating

matchup in that regard. So let me get into it. Let me take it from these coaches, these two coaches, Kirby Smart and Kalin DeBore. And obviously they're both really good. I consider Kirby Smart to be the best coach in college football right now. Can't argue with his record. His record speaks for itself. two national championships, two of them coming in the last three years. But I just thought to myself, like, where is the pressure sitting in this game as it relates to the coaches? And you might be thinking to yourself like, well, the obvious answer is the guy that is filling in for Nick Sabin. But slow down for a moment. I actually think there's more pressure on Kirby Smart and hear me out.

Kirby Smart has done everything in the sport and he has dominated. everybody in the sport. He is, as I just proclaimed, the best coach right now in college football. However, the only thing that he did not do was really overtake his mentor, Nick Saban. In fact, he was 1 in 5 against Alabama in his career and Nick Saban. And if you look more recently, even in the period in which Georgia has dominated the sport, won two national championships, not lost a regular season game to a team not named Alabama. since COVID. That was the Dan Mullen Florida team.

Like, it's the only thing that Kirby struggled with was the Nick Sabin teams at Alabama. So this narrative around Kirby Smart is that, at least for me, is like, well, yeah, he's the best coach in college football, but he couldn't beat Nick Saban. So if Kirby Smart were to actually lose this game on Saturday, that's actually a giant issue. Because it goes from a Nick Saban problem that Kirby. Smart had, to an Alabama problem that he still has. So there's a lot of pressure on Kirby because this narrative around Kirby can almost be explained away in terms of the losing to Alabama.

It's like, yeah, but it's Sabin and now Sabin's gone and look, he won two national championships. And fair enough. But if he loses to a Kalin-Dabor Alabama team, it shifts from a Sabin issue to a tide problem. And then it's a team you've got to deal. with. It's a team that's got a great recruiting class coming in, and that would not be good for Kirby Smart. I think that there's a lot of pressure on Kirby Smart, even on the road, even in a year in which we're going to have a 12-team playoff and more on that in a little bit. Now we shift over to, I think, the coach that most people would think has more pressure on him, which is Kalin DeBore,

for Alabama. And yes, they're right. And the reason that people are right that he does have pressure on them is because of the success that Nick Sabin and Alabama had against Georgia. Because of that success, if they're not able to win, then it might be a clear step backwards. And I don't think Tide fans are going to be all that happy about a clear step backwards. You know, we haven't seen this team really tested. We thought that that test might occur on the road at Wisconsin, but that Wisconsin program is just not in a position to really threaten a team like Alabama, in particular with all the firepower that Alabama has. So that was like the breadbasket to the entree that is about to be Georgia

at home at night in your home stadium. I think Kalin needs to win this game because if he doesn't, it's a clear step backwards. And that's not a program that wants to take a clear step backwards. In particular, when you start thinking about the recruiting, which is going really well for Alabama right now. But that doesn't mean it's going to finish really well. And I think this game might have a lot to do with that. Might have a lot to do with that. I'm looking at this from the perspective of DeBoer and an Alabama fan, and I will give this one caveat, if he loses a really tight game that's really close, it's well played, and it just so happens to go Georgia's way, I think everyone would be like, okay, you know what, we're fine. Everything's fine. But if at home and at night,

they go out there and lose by multiple possessions, then people might think to themselves like, this is a clear step backwards. And he desperately wants to avoid that. He doesn't want to have to deal with that certainly as a narrative surrounding him, nor a narrative on the recruiting trail. But what happens if they actually win? Like I said, the pressure could be on Kirby Smart. So in the event that Alabama wins this game at home under Kalin DeBore, I actually think for DeBoer, that is a seismic, seismic opportunity. This could be a win for Alabama that plants a flag and says there will be no drop-off to the greatest run in the history of the sport.

And that's saying something. That's why it would be a seismic win if Alabama were to beat Georgia. And then I touch on the recruiting rankings again. Currently right now, Alabama sits in the 24-7 rankings at number two in the country for this year's class. Now, that's only with 20 commitments. Ohio State is number one. I believe they have 26 commitments. If you actually look at their per player rating, at least due to that on that service, you'll see that Alabama's per player rating is actually the highest in the country.

They have more five-star players committed to them than anybody else in the country. So Kalin has recruited exceptionally well, even for a guy that hasn't done it on the field at that location. A win against Georgia would send that into hyperdrive. you can finish that class off. Maybe you get another or two more five stars to come in and actually have the number one recruiting class in the country. I think it would be a giant win if Kaelin DeBoer could win. It really would. Because then all of a sudden, it's not a saving problem. It's an Alabama problem. Then it's a seismic shift in recruiting. And DeBoer can finish off this class, which right now is historically good for Alabama in this race.

if you just look at this from like the programs overall and you take it out of the coaches. So if you just look at this season and these two teams, Georgia and Alabama, the ramifications of a loss for each of these program are actually pretty severe. And this is what I will bristle at when people say, hey, Joel, the 12 team playoff is creating a regular season that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if one of these teams loses this game. And I absolutely disagree with that. And the reason is, is that it puts them, the loser, in a position where it'll be almost impossible to get back to the SEC championship game.

Now, not entirely impossible. I just think that they would have to run the table. And by the way, even if they were to do that, it doesn't guarantee that they would get in. So, again, it's a narrow path for the loser of this game to make it to the SEC championship game, which means that you do not have an opportunity to get a buy in the postseason. That's a big deal. And pending some of these schedules or these specific schedules that these two teams have after this game, it's not a guarantee that the loser of this game is going to run the table. So if you all of a sudden get a second loss, there's a good chance that you not only don't get a buy,

but you're going to be playing on the road in the first round of the playoffs. That's not what you want coming out of this weekend. Not at all. Not for these teams that are this proud that have this standard of national championship. Look at the schedules that they have. The loser, this is what they're going to be dealing with. Let's look at Georgia's remaining schedule after this game. This puts it into somewhat of perspective here.

Georgia, if they lose this game, they still have to go to Texas, to Ole Miss, and play Tennessee. Hey, by the way, those four teams that you're seeing on your screen right now, if you're watching YouTube, remember to go over there and subscribe. Those are four of the top six teams in the country. Georgia happens to be another one of those top six teams. So you're saying five of the top six teams in the country, Georgia has to play four of them, three of them on the road. If they lose, there's no guarantee that they can run the table. Texas might be better than both of these teams.

So now a loss in Tuscaloosa and Georgia is precariously close from being a team that yes, can go to the postseason and maybe it doesn't matter. But do you really want to play on the road in the postseason? So that's why this is so big for obviously Georgia. Look at Alabama's road after this game. Let's just say Georgia rolls in there and actually beats the tide on their home field. Well, then Alabama has to deal with this. They've got the Georgia game. They still have to go to Tennessee.

They still have to play Missouri. They still have to go to LSU. They still have to go to Oklahoma. And they still have the Iron Bowl, which, as you Tide fans know, throw out the records. We've seen bad Auburn teams compete really hard against Alabama. and there's no suggesting that that wouldn't be the case this year, all right, even though Justin Wilcox and Cal rolled into Jordan Hare and took care of the Tigers. That is not an easy gauntlet for Alabama.

So the loser of this game has an incredibly narrow path to the SEC championship game. Incredibly narrow path. And I think that makes this game monumental. Outside of all the narratives and all the discussions surrounding the two head coaches, which I touched on before the two teams there. Man, those two schedules. George's schedule is brutal. Absolutely brutal.

More on that in a little bit. Let's go to the mailbag, huh? Shall we? I'm going to give a slow clap for the mailbag. I love the mailback. When Steve and Kat say, hey, let's go to the mailbag. I'm like, absolutely, because I love hearing where your mind is. at the listeners. I love the questions that you give. I specifically love it when you ask me

about like just life stuff and college football. And we've got both of that here today. So here we go. Jay Rozier writes in. He says, excited for big noon kickoff coming to Orlando. That's right. Big noon kickoff will be at UCF as Colorado takes on UCF on Fox at, what is it, 3.30 Eastern. My question is this. If UCF were to win the next couple of weeks, Colorado, then Florida, when will the national media start to recognize them as a legitimate power school in the state? They have a better location than Tallahassee, Gainville. They're the largest school in the state and a top five attendance in the country. Huge school.

That's absolutely true. They have their own stadium. They've got a good alumni, unlike Miami, which is a small private school. I'm just curious where you see their trajectory the next five to 10 years because they've always been viewed as one of the, quote, other teams in the best recruiting state in the country. What will it take to become the team in Florida? That's a great question. I appreciate you writing that in. Now, let's start with this fact.

It is going to take a lot. I believe it's a Herculean task for UCF to become the team. All the things that you just said, J. Rozier, are correct. The intangibles are there. They've got a great location, a great recruiting base, a really strong alumni structure. It's an on-campus stadium.

The problem is that they do not have the history. And it's not even close as compared to the three powers in the state that have all won multiple national championships. You think of what the other schools have done. And during periods, it's like historically good. Urban won a couple of national championships. Spurrier won national championships. Miami has had some of the best teams in the history of the sport and had two different runs that were as dominant as any run that we've seen. seen in the sport. Florida State under Bobby Bowden had an incredible run, and then they had another

national championship under Jimbo Fisher. In fact, 14 years Florida State showed up in the top four of the last AP poll. That is staggering. Staggering. So UCF is fighting a significant amount of history. So here's what they're going to need to become on par with those teams. I don't think they'll ever be the team. You cannot overcome that history. It's the same issue that Oklahoma State has with Oklahoma. You don't just throw out the history of the winning streak and Bud Wilkerson and Barry Switzer. That's too difficult. History cannot be erased. So what does UCF need to do in order to become on par with the other three schools in Florida? Well, number one, you need at least a couple of them to be down. Check? Because we've got Florida State and Florida that are down right now.

During those times, you have to flash. So you've got to create a splash season in those moments when those teams that are around you geographically are down. So you've got to splash in order to capitalize on recruiting. But in order to capitalize on recruiting, guess what you have to do? You have to have a coach that's willing to stay. And this is where it becomes very difficult because not every group of five team can get to a level that's on par with those powers around them and then stay there. Let's look at a couple of the examples that have actually worked. Utah and TCU. Utah and TCU, I think, are the perfect case study for UCF.

If you're trying to do this and you're trying to build yourself into a program that goes from smaller conferences to a power conference and then put yourself on par with the powers not only in that conference, but with the powers around you geographically, you have to have a coach stay after the splashy seasons. The key to Utah, going to the PAC 12 and getting to where they got is Kyle Winningham. The key to TCU starting in Conference USA and then going to the Mountain West and then going to the Big 12 and then playing at the top of college football was Gary Patterson. You've got to have a guy that's staying there and capitalizing on that splash. So Gus Malzahn's got to stay at UCF. If you want to put yourselves on par with those teams around you, Gus Malzahn has got to stay and you got to build.

because it's going to be tough. Capitalized through recruiting with a coach that will stay at your school and create something really great. It's really hard. And by the way, Miami is not going to make this easy because, yeah, you've got two teams that are down in the Florida area. So you could say UCF can capitalize. Well, guess what? Miami's having a splashier season than even UCF, even if they're to go to the Big 12 championship or even win the Big 12 championship, there's a likelihood that Cam Ward's going to wind up in New York. there's a likelihood that Miami is going to win the ACC potentially, although Clemson looks really good now. And if that happens, Miami is just back to being Miami again, and they will suck all the oxygen out of the room in the state of Florida. So UCF, even though I would say kind of the environment is right currently, I think it's going to be very difficult. Very difficult

because Miami with Cam Ward doesn't look like they're going anywhere. That was a good question. I really like that. Mason writes in, he says, hey, Joel, love the show. It feels like scheduling has never mattered more, with multiple teams being more relevant because they have a lighter schedule, while multiple other teams may have a ceiling because of their more difficult schedule. Based on that, do you think we could ever see a major structural change to how schedules are made?

Mason, you bet you. I love this question. First of all, let me just say this. I'm going to take the last line of your email says, do you think we could ever see a major structural change to how schedules are made? I desperately hope so. I desperately hope so. I believe that that can happen. I do believe that there are conversations that can make that happen. And let me explain. Scheduling right now in super conferences has never been more imbalanced. Never, never. Missouri and Ole Miss don't play. anywhere near the schedule that Oklahoma and Georgia have. That's just the facts.

And those of you that want to be Twitter warriors and, you know, defend Missouri, like, good on you, but don't twist my words. I'm not comparing Missouri and Ole Miss. I'm comparing Missouri, Ole Miss to Oklahoma and Georgia, because those schedules don't compute, not in the least. Here's the notable SEC teams not on Missouri's schedule. Texas ain't on there. Georgia ain't on there.

Tennessee ain't on there. Ole Miss, they ain't on there either. LSU, nope. OU plays four of those teams. So the only team that Missouri really has is Alabama. Again, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Ole Miss, LSU. Those are four of the top six teams in the country as we currently stand. So Missouri's schedule is not even close.

So the randomness of how schedules are made in the superconference era has got to end. It has to end. And I understand this is the first year of the super conference. But even then, this cannot be the schedule lottery at this point. I think it's too important and it's too easy of a fix. teams that finish higher in previous years should have more difficult schedule in subsequent years. And I believe that that should happen on the conference level. I also believe that should happen on the non-conference level.

That is way too easy of a fix. Think of it this way. The more you turn, like if there are levers, okay, and you have like, hey, there are things we can do as a conference or an entity that will make competition higher. If you pull those levers, it makes the product better. The more levers that you pull that make it easier for some teams to succeed versus others, then your product hurts. That's why the NFL is so much better than Major League Baseball.

because the product levers of competition are pulled much more stringently in the NFL. Basically, I believe that we should have schedules based on where you finish within the conference. I believe that we should have schedules that are made for you in the non-conference as well. I don't think schedules should be made way out into the distance. I don't think it's going to happen maybe anytime soon. And there is one hang up. Like, for instance, I do think that the Big Ten and the SEC want to play. some sort of scheduling arrangement in non-conference play.

It would only increase their value and increase the amount of valuable inventory within their portfolio that they're selling to their television partners. So of course they would want to do that. But there's a sticking point. The Big Ten plays nine conference games and the SEC plays eight conference games. So there's no way that the two leagues are going to agree to do this because clearly the Big Ten would be at a significant disadvantage because they're adding at that point a 10th very difficult power four level games.

whereas the SEC would have nine in some cases. That's an issue. So they need to get on the same page in terms of the number of conference games that they play. Now, you're not putting the toothpaste back in the tube in the Big Ten and going back to eight games because the schools are not going to pay back money that the television partners have already shelled out for the inventory that they've said they'll play. So then the onus falls on the SEC and their partners to create the ninth game and then pay accordingly. Once that happens, I do believe that we're going to have schedules that are made for some of those teams in non-conference play and not 10 years out, but in a much more finite window so that we have really good competition playing really good competition.

Therefore, the better teams will have a more difficult schedule. If you're pulling a competition lover, the product gets better. So there you go. Let's move on. I love that question. It gets a little bit in the weeds, but I actually love, like, the weeds of college football are kind of my jam. Man, long questions. I'm just not a good reader. Or I don't read well. You see what I did there? You see?

All right. This comes in from Tyler, Tyler V. He says, my name is Tyler. Thank you, Tyler. And I want to apologize in advance for the long-winded question. I'm 25 years old and an ex-division-3 athlete who now works in corporate America. While I don't take the stability or other benefits of a corporate job for granted, I spend a lot of time thinking about how I want to spend my adult life doing something I enjoy. Okay. I like this. I like the direction this is going. During your live show in Madison, you shared a story about how you went from a failed investment banker to being one half of the best college football commentary duo to exist.

By the way, to be fair, I think that that was Tyler's words. I didn't say I was one half of the best college football commentary. I believe that was your opinion, which thank you for your opinion. I just wanted to make that clear. My question is, what advice do you have for young adults that want to move into the sports industry that may not have the educational background or resume to support that ambition? From data analytics for a sports network to Waterboy, I'm open to all opportunities. I appreciate your time. And I hope this question makes an upcoming show. Regards, Tyler.

Tyler, your question made an upcoming show. Okay, so here's what I would say. I believe that the barriers of entry into any profession that you want to get into, outside of one that you need an accreditation for, have never been lower. Okay? Here's what I mean by that. If you tell me like, hey, I want to be a doctor, you can't just network your way to being a doctor. Hey, I want to be a lawyer.

You can't network your way to being a lawyer. Those are accreditations. You've got to go to the requisite school, get the accreditation in order to go to that career path. So let's throw those types of careers out. Now let's talk about everything else. I firmly believe in our new, I guess a modern connected society that the barriers to entry to any industry have never been lower. Listen, if you want to go and be in data analytics and you want to work at a television network, you want to go and work for a college football team or an NFL team, like just network.

Get yourself in there. But two things are always going to be true about choosing a career path for young adults. And here's the two things. Number one is that you can go get a job based on how much they'll pay you and you can try to maximize your pay. Or you can go get a job in a field that you love and take whatever pay they'll give you. Those are two different avenues. And here's what I would say about it. If you're going to go to a career or a job where you're going to try to maximize

your pay, then you have already made a decision and you can't complain about it. If you don't like that, you need to leave. If you're going into a career field or want to go into a career field because you love it and you're passionate about it and that's where you want to spend the rest of your life in terms of your vocation, then here's the thing. You can't worry about how much you get paid, in particular early. And sometimes that's a barrier for some people and sometimes it's not. Okay?

Let me explain. You can find opportunities to go be a part of almost anything in America. You really can because people are desperately always looking for quality individuals that are passionate, smart, and willing to work hard. If you can do those three things, then you can go ahead and work yourself up in a career field that you really love. I'll give you an example. I lost a corporate job in a small reet. I thought I was going to be an investment banker. It didn't go well. This is 2006 and so the real estate market crashes, that job goes away. Well, at the time, I had done a few high school football games, and I thought to myself, even though I don't have a broadcasting degree, I really enjoy broadcasting. So guess what I want to do? I want to try to be a broadcaster. I got a very low-level opportunity to do a radio show.

Now, I was fortunate. I had played college football, and so I had enough name equity in the Denver area where I was going to get a radio show. Well, good for that. Third-tier radio station, not many people listening. And I got this partner, Nate Kreckman, awesome dude. And Nate and I had this low-budget radio show. I agreed to take $18,000 a year as my salary.

I maybe saw $7,000 of it, but I didn't complain. And we would sell spots or we would sell remote shows where a company would say, hey, here's a few hundred dollars. Do your show from our restaurant, place of business, whatever it was. And so we'd say, okay, that's how we would go. make money. So here I am, and I want to make this career path work. Keep in mind, I'm making, you know, significantly less as a married man, Sarah and I are married. I'm making significantly less trying to be in broadcasting. But guess what? I loved it. So I was willing to do whatever it took because I knew that the long run was going to be better than the short run. So here I am at a Taco Bell in Denver, Colorado. And we're doing a remote show. And we're at a Taco Bell. And here I and my partner says, hey, I need you to go plug the phone line into the back office because

we're going to do a show from here. And the only way to get online at that point was plug into a phone line. So he's like, he gives me this long 150 feet, you know, length of phone line. He's like, hey, go plug this in. I'm like, okay. And then he turns to me and he's like, hey, make sure you tape it down because like if someone kicks it out, we'll be off the air. And I'm like, oh, that makes sense. So he's setting up the rest of the technical stuff. We didn't have a text. staff. We set it up. And so here I am. I plug it in. And now I'm realizing that this court is just laying on the floor of the Taco Bell kitchen kitchen. Because the office is in the back. We're out in the front lobby trying to do our show. And here's this phone line that needs to be taped down on a Taco Bell kitchen floor. So guess what I did? I got on my hands and knees with duct tape and I taped down the phone line on a Taco Bell kitchen floor. And I still think of that. I still think about that when I'm getting ready to call Michigan, Ohio State or Texas,

Michigan or any big game that I have the opportunity to do, whether it's a Big Ten championship game or anything else. And I think about that moment on my hands and knees on a Taco Bell floor. And I think to myself, I'm so thankful that I made the decision that I would do whatever it took to be in this career path. And that would be my advice to you. You can take the money or you can go do what you're passionate about and chase something. But if you chase something, you better be willing to do what it takes. Long-winded answer, but really good question, Tyler. Okay, let's go to Jen. Love it when the ladies email the show. Jen, welcome in. She says, do you have any recommendations for resources to learn the X's and O's of college football?

I'm pretty serious, college football fan. Awesome. I love that. And one of your female listeners. I have season tickets from my favorite team and I typically watch multiple games on TV each weekend. I love Jen. This is awesome. She says, I listen to all of your shows, but would like to learn more about the X's and O's, the schematics of the game. I didn't grow up with a family member who played or coached, and I've never played myself, so everything I know has been from watching broadcasts. I'd like to learn more about play calling and how to recognize coverages and more nuances of the game. Anything you'd recommend? Do you give lessons? Thanks, Jen F. Jen, awesome question.

I'll get to the lessons part in a second, but I would say if you want to learn about football, kind of like the previous answer, there's never been a better time to learn about the game. Why? Because of YouTube. This is why everyone should be on YouTube right now. Go to YouTube and just type in your favorite coach's name. And I guarantee you, you will find videos of a lecture that coach gave or an installation that he gave about some concept that he's known for. They are all over out there.

And some of them are serious, and they're really good. Go type in Bill Walsh. Go type in Bill Belichick. It is a rabbit hole that I love because, Jen, I'm like you. Well, I'm not a novice in schematics, but I love to learn more about the schematics of football. And to this point, by the way, we do some X's and O's right here at the Joel Clash Show.

So make sure to watch our film videos that we have. have exclusively on our YouTube page. Go and subscribe, and you can check out some of that, and you're going to learn some football just based on those videos. And then I would just pose this question. We have thought at the show about doing a series that is kind of a teaching series, almost like Football 101. Would you guys like that?

I remember posing the question on Twitter as like, hey, thinking about doing a podcast, what do you think? And it was overwhelmingly positive. And guess what? Here we are three years later. So I'll just throw this out. Would you guys want a series of X's and O's that are just teaching the structures of football? If you want that, we'll work on it.

We'll work on it at the Joel Clat Show, because I think that would be awesome. Leave a comment down below or email us, the Joel Clatio Mailbag at gmail.com and let us know. Actually, you know what? No, just comment or hit us up on social media or hit me on social media at Joel Clad on X. We don't need an email, yes or no. Email us questions for the show, but hit us up on the comments below on YouTube. if you'd like us to do a series on X's and O's. All right. Last one comes in from Derek, our friend and friend of the show, Derek Watt. That's right. He emails and he says,

Hey, Joel, we're sure you spend a lot of time traveling with your family. What are some of their or your must-haves while on the road? We do spend a lot of time traveling. I travel alone. I travel a lot with my family. I would just say this, Derek. When it comes to traveling with my family, there is only one imperative, and that's options. So when we go, all of my boys, I have three boys, they all like different foods, they all like to eat right when they get up in the morning, and they all like different pillows. I know it's a thing, like Theo loves a soft pillow. Sam, my middle one, he loves a firm pillow.

I'm a firm pillow guy. Sarah's a soft pillow gal. So it's like, we need options in our family, and I'm sure you're like that too. So for us, Hampton by Hilton is perfect because guess what? I can go down and get a Hampton by Hilton breakfast. I love the waffle. Henry loves the bagel. Theo loves the yogurt.

Sam loves the fruit. I love the coffee. So like we have options at breakfast. It's perfect because there's so much that we can get at breakfast. And then I can always call down. Someone's going to be there helping out. It's always friendly. and I can get pillows of whatever firmness that I want.

So a little shout out to Hampton by Hilton, because when we travel as a family, the options are imperative, and they certainly have them there whenever I'm on the road. That'll do it for today. I've got a huge preview episode of games coming out, games and picks coming out tomorrow on Thursday. We've got a lot going on.

I'll be in Michigan for Michigan, Minnesota, for Big Noon Saturday. Big Noon kickoff will be at UCF, Colorado, which is the game that we'll be. will directly follow us on Fox at 3.30 Eastern. Thanks so much for watching and listening, everybody. Hit us up about that football 101. If you'd like a series like that, we'll work on it. Follow us on social media at Joel Clatt Show and enjoy your day.